We are all tired and sore after 2 days of hiking! We took it easy in the morning. I didn't want the kids to sit around on devices all day, so I had them pull out their book nooks. Zari and Ivy have made good progress on their overly-elaborate kits.

My brother and I went consignment store shopping to look for fun household items and furniture. I found a huge wool rug for Le Chateau (we had an old ratty rug in the living room as a placeholder). Plus a few small items, like a Peugeot salt grinder and a little mother-of-pearl bowl for holding coins and other little items.

Then we had to carry this huge, heavy carpet 1.2 km home! We were very sweaty by time we got home.

Next up: quick swim with Ivy, Zari, and my brother. Dio had a date with a girl from his class (they got pizza and hung out at the beach) so he didn't come swimming.

Inga and Eric got in after dinner. Everyone is watching the Champion's League final.

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24,564 - 600 - 9

That is how many steps we took, how many vertical meters we climbed, and how many kilometers we hiked. We did the Tour de la tête de Chien, which we've done several times before but always in the winter. The entire descent is sunny and south-facing, and the radiant heat from the rocks and cliff faces was intense! It was definitely a challenge to get myself up, given the sun and heat and thirst (we underestimated how much water we'd need).

Ivy was struggling. She was tired from her tournament the day before, and she was either whining, pulling on me, hyperventilating, or crying the whole way up. I kept her going because I knew she could do it. Once we were at the top, we found a cool, dark tunnel and had a lunch break. That perked everyone up.

There's a spectacular view of Monaco from the top.

The descent was a bit more direct and much more shaded, so we had zero issues with Ivy.

The hike took us 3 hrs 13 minutes, including lots of breaks.

Once we got home mid-afternoon, we took a bit of downtime to recuperate. Then I went with my brother for a swim (amazing!) and Zari joined us a bit later.

We made a "what's in the fridge?" dinner of hamburgers, green beans, escargots, and French fries.

We all took an evening walk after the sun had gone down. Because we clearly hadn't walked enough today!

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Mont Boron

Ivy left early this morning for a tournament. I dropped her off at Cavigal and then came home and woke Zari up to go hiking with me and my brother. I got Dio up right before we left at 9:30. It was a lovely hike, a bit over 6 miles and just under 3 hours including plenty of breaks for lunch and enjoying the views. We've done this one many times over the years.

I got quite a bit more written and several new graphics designed for my video analysis publication.

Inga's first tournament day went well. They tied their first two games 0-0 and 1-1, with Inga scoring the one goal and finally playing forward. I think they played another game and honestly I can't remember the results because I'm also trying to track Ivy's tournament (they went all the way to the finals, tied, and lost via penalty kick). Ivy came home very upset and still won't talk about everything. When she is down, she is VERY down.

Dio spent the afternoon at the beach with his friends and came home happy, a bit sunburned, and 10 Euros (of mine) lighter because they bought juice and Magnum ice cream bars.

I went for another walk after dinner (potstickers, edamame, Italian salad, and tiramisu). I really hope we all sleep well tonight. I didn't get that much last night but that was my fault for staying up reading and then having to wake up at 7 am.

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Zari had her last official exam for this semester's classes. Now she has to study for "les rattrapages" for first semester. Once she was done with her test, we went for a run-swim.

My brother and I went out to eat--his treat--at Fine Gueule. Very delicious. It's a bit more pricey, but they have a daily 2-course menu for just 21.50. Today was gazpacho and a veal cutlet with lemon confit, spinach, and mashed potatoes. The gazpacho was superb.

Eric and Inga left this afternoon for a huge tournament in Béziers. They'll be staying 3 nights in a campground in little cabins. There's a pool and waterslide and it's supposed to be 33C! I hope they can stay cool enough during the games. We've had a cool spring and it's just started to heat up a tiny bit. We aren't used to hot weather yet!

We had a post-dinner walk with those who were around, then I made tiramisu for tomorrow.

School is off for the next 2 days due to the brevet (middle school exams) so we have hiking and other excursions planned.

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Yesterday Zari, my brother, and I went running and jumped into the ocean at the end. Bliss! Zari was hesitant at first but I think we've converted her.

My brother took several of the kids clothes shopping for both himself and them. He came home with several linen shirts and a linen suit jacket. He's in love with the way European men dress so he's coming home with lots of nice things to wear. Zari and Dio both were gifted a shirt and Inga got a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. They are so lucky to have an uncle who loves to spend time with them and spoil them.

I took a break from work to swim with my brother, Zari, and Eric this afternoon. Despite being very tired, I've been sleeping poorly because I have so much work and it never ends. I like what I do, don't get me wrong, but I have not been able to find ways to limit my working hours to something reasonable.

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Soccer & Grand Prix

I went to Dio's soccer tournament; we had to be out the door before 8:30 am and it was scheduled to go until 8:30 pm! We arrived and there was a huge mis-organization and the fields were being used by another group. This delayed the start of the tournament over an hour, and throughout the day the delay just got worse.

I watched the first two games (joined by my brother) and then we went home since there was a several hour break. Eric showed up for the last few games, 4 initially and 1 since they made it to the quarterfinals.

We watched the Monaco Grand Prix in our apartment, greatly aided by my brother, who knows a lot about cars and racing. Otherwise we'd have just been watching the cars go around 78 times without thinking anything else interesting was going on.

It's amazing to see the 2.2 second pit stops.

Then my brother and I cooked a delicious meal: homemade socca, potatoes roasted in duck fat, and kebabs made with lamb, chicken, and lots of vegetables, in a rosemary-garlic marinade.

I've been working on scatterplots and linear regression lines this evening and my brain is ready to turn off 🙂

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Ivy and Eric were gone all day at a tournament, which didn't go well. Eric came back super frustrated and is still ranting about the girls' bad behavior (not Ivy, but several of her teammates).

I let the other kids sleep in quite late, then made them French toast. We watched Ocean's 11 in the early afternoon. I was feeling cooped up, so afterwards Zari and I went on a walk around the port.

My brother went to the Formula 1 race in Monaco. Today was the qualifying races, but still super fun. He got back late this evening and invited the kids to meet him on the beach for pizza. I came with Dio and Inga. Then we stopped for crepes and waffles (well, I was fasting so I passed mine on to someone else).

Dio has a tournament tomorrow. I'll go with him in the morning and switch off with Eric in the afternoon.

I also got several more sections written for the video analysis publication. It's coming along!

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I went running with Zari and my brother this morning. It's so much more fun to run with people!

Over the past two days I've written about 20 pages (including tables and illustrations) of a research article, our breech birth video analysis project. I have the methods and results sections nearly done.

I took a break in the afternoon for a quick swim with Eric, Ivy, and my brother.

Busy soccer weekend. Ivy has a tournament tomorrow and Dio has one on Sunday. My brother will be in Monaco at the F1 qualifying races tomorrow.

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Brother fun

My kids are remembering that if they go do something with my brother--maybe it's going on a walk, maybe it's taking out the garbage and recycling--they often accidentally run into ice cream stores. How does that happen???

I went on a walk with him in the morning, and then he and Zari went running. Lots of writing today (research articles) and some meetings. We got treated to a meal that my brother cooked: lamb in garlic and rosemary, potatoes roasted in duck fat, and green beans with garlic and olive oil. Dessert was from Paul via TooGoodToGo.

Ivy came home not feeling well, and she missed soccer practice. Uh oh.

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My brother is en route and arrives tomorrow morning! We are looking forward to lots of adventures and treats and maybe even "quatorze boules de glace" (an ongoing inside joke about buying ice cream at Fenocchio's).

We have some family friends staying the night in Le Chateau before my brother arrives, and they invited me and Eric out to dinner. Eric had soccer, so lucky Ivy got to be the 4th person.

I had my last eye exercise appointment, doing a "final exam" and comparing the results with when I first started. Everything is within normal physiological limits now, so the exercise classes worked! I asked the practitioner why and how he got into that orthoptics and he used to work in wine making! But with the downturn of wineries about 15-20 years ago, he started looking for a second career and chose this one.

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Inga's back at school and back to normal. Phew. She forgot to bring her signed note, though, and I got an email from the school. Even if you phone in their absence, you still have to fill out a form in their "carnet de correspondence."

Zari has another big test tomorrow, as does Dio. He's been memorizing history facts about the American revolution and I hear him reciting things to himself about the "Boston Tea Party" but pronounced the French way.

Ivy's rainbow dress arrived today (used via Vinted) and it was way better than in the pictures. She's so excited for the "Boum arc-en-ciel"! She's been making loads of bracelets and necklaces and earrings to accessorize.

I have finished my "eye exercise" class and have the final evaluation tomorrow. He'll retest everything and compared to the beginning, but he's pretty sure I won't need any more sessions.

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Happy 51st birthday Eric!

We didn't have huge decorations or anything fancy. Somehow 51st birthdays don't get the attention that 50th birthdays do! But we did have a birthday dinner (homemade chicken pot pie) and 6 different pastries from Lac for a birthday cake. And we watched an episode of Andor together after dinner.

I went to Dio's soccer game this morning. He scored the first goal, a penalty kick (which I missed; I was still en route) and they won 5-0. They had a "goûter" afterwards where the coaches gave little thank-you speeches.

Eric and I got out this afternoon for a walk, plus I had my normal walk up to Cimiez. So I'm well over 13k steps even though I only walked to Cimiez one-way instead of round-trip.

I'm sewing several sets of stirrups for our obstetric simulators. Here are the scraps from cutting out the pieces. The fabric is left over from Covid, when we were sewing and wearing masks. (Remember having to wear masks outdoors? Yeah, that was a crazy time.)

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Escape game

Inga wanted to do an escape room for her birthday. More than 2 months after, we finally had time to do one! This was a WWI-themed game, in the trenches of Verdun. It was more like an escape compound, with multiple rooms and doors. (My German great-grandpa fought in Verdun and wrote about it in his auto-biography. I remember him describing it as a "hell.")

Inga is looking much improved and has an appetite again. She still looks quite pale and has dark circles under her eyes.

We went to the beach this morning intending to swim, but there was a strong wind and it was too chilly to go in the water. Inga and Dio went back home after about 10 minutes. Eric went spearfishing so he was in for a good while and he came back with an octopus and 2 fish. The rest of us stayed a bit longer.

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Inga is STILL sick! I tried to get her to go to school, but she absolutely did not feel well enough. I hope she's well enough to go out tomorrow--we have a free day with no soccer games, so we were thinking of spending some time at the beach and then going to an escape game (a very late birthday activity for Inga).

I went running (sprint intervals) and got loads of breech things done. Zari's exam went well.

I got a monitor for my work station. I can finally see things in great detail! It's so nice for photo and video editing. It only took me 10 1/2 years to get a proper desk and work area here...

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Inga didn't feel well enough to go to school, but it was the first day with out a fever since Saturday! I think she'll be back tomorrow. She's still really pale and lethargic.

I got another publication submitted today! (Technically, one of my co-authors submitted it...but it still counts!) We submitted to the BJOG, British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

What else? Zari's test went pretty well, although she realized in retrospect she should have spent more time on anatomy and morphology and less on phylogeny. She has an ecological economics test tomorrow.

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Sick. Period.

Inga woke up with a fever--again! Poor girl. Day 5 of illness and not looking any better. I felt well enough to run this morning, but I've been feeling progressively worse all day. Body aches, general malaise, maybe even a fever coming on. Bleh.

AND...this afternoon...Inga started hollering for me from the bathroom. I was in the middle of helping Dio with a timed online quiz, but she was insistent so I went to investigate. Of all the days for it to happen, her period started for the first time. Between dealing with blood clots, washing out underwear and pants, showing her pads, and giving her a hot water bottle for terrible cramps, it's been quite the day. She got lots of sympathy from her siblings.

We'll have a Red Party like we did for Zari, once she's feeling better. Red Party = a party where everything is red. Think pomegranate seeds, beets, red bell peppers, red velvet cake, cranberry juice...

I need to go shopping for period underwear. I constantly extol the virtues of menstrual cups but Inga wants to first get used to just dealing with periods for a few months.

Zari has a huge biology test tomorrow. The class is called the Diversity of Life (Diversité du Vivant), or phylogeny and genetic classification. Inga and Ivy have been helping her study.

Dio was studying a huge list of French vocabulary and their synonyms earlier today, also with siblings' help. Much silliness and laughter ensued.

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Inga is still sick and no better today, maybe even worse. She has barely eaten except for juice and applesauce.

I'm mostly better but not well enough to run yet. Maybe tomorrow?

Ivy and a group of friends had an outing today to a taco shop and a movie. I love that we can send her on the tram and they can go off anywhere in the city by themselves. French taco stores are definitely *not* what you'd think. Nothing Mexican in these tacos at all! Ivy's had French fries, chicken cordon bleu, and cheese sauce.

I'm going to lie down in my bed. A favorite part of my day is when I lie down, pull up my covers, and just do...nothing. Ahhhh. Okay, maybe I'll read but that's it! Nothing else.

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Inga went to school this morning and looked so sick during the first hour that her teacher sent her to the school nurse. I got a call saying we had to come pick her up. Poor thing--she had a fever all day today and didn't eat much or move off the couch.

She had to do a few things in the late afternoon, one of which was a Spanish assignment to film her and a classmate cooking a recipe. Sickness is no excuse, unfortunately, in that class. She took "St. Doliprane" (acetaminophen) and managed to get it done.

Zari is studying for a huge biology final this Thursday, memorizing huge charts of the tree of life, from the first single-celled organisms all the way up to complex vertebrates.

Ivy is going to a "boum" next month, a big dance party hosted by one of her friends, and the whole group of girls are sending hundreds of messages already about what they're going to eat, wear, etc. The theme is "rainbows" so we found a secondhand rainbow dress. She's going to wear her rainbow socks and put rainbow hair tinsel in.

I'm still not feeling great, either. No fever but definitely no energy to exercise.

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Inga and I took a sick day. She was really sick and I was on the mend. She still has a fever this evening and I hope she'll be ok for tomorrow.

Zari had her last soccer game and, since they were down several players, they got massacred :(

Dio had a small birthday party for his friends. I prepared a big lunch for them, plus homemade birthday cake, in the Chateau and then they watched a movie. It was a self-sufficient party. I just popped in on occasion to see if they needed anything.

Eric and I went on two walks today. I'm constantly amazed by how lucky we are to live here.

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Successful soccer Saturday

Eric was gone all day at 3 soccer games: Dio (Beausoleil, winning 3-0), Inga (Cavigal, winning 2-0), and Ivy (Cavigal, winning 8-1).

I did more sewing today, finally redoing Inga's curtains with a rufflette strip on the top. We threaded stainless steel key rings through the rufflette loops and then put those on the curtain rod. I have one more thing left on my mending pile: a pair of sweatpants to turn into shorts.

I was thinking of going to one of the Cavigal games, but a) I was cooking dinner and b) I started to feel a bit icky. It's gotten worse through the evening. Inga came home and was also feeling unwell.

I made vegan mushroom stroganoff with button & oyster mushrooms, served over potatoes roasted in duck fat. Lemon cheesecake for dessert.

Dio's having his birthday party tomorrow so I need to get everything in order for the lunch and make the frosting tomorrow morning.

Zari and I took a walk this afternoon. It felt amazing to be out in the sun. She's still feeling undecided, hating the idea of closing one door if she chooses the other option. Yes, that's life! You have to close some when others open and you'll never know if it was the "right" choice. Academically and socially Toronto is more interesting, but France is safe and easy. It's basically free and she'd be done in just 2 more years and she could start grad school at age 20. And she loves Nice. But...the opportunity to try a new country and get a North American university experience is also really interesting and exciting.

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Mending is dangerous business

I was mending a frayed spot on Zari's jeans (backed it with a thin woven fabric and did multiple lines of zig-zags well beyond the worn area. I managed to sew through my finger! Oops! Fortunately it was just through the fleshy part on the side. The needle punched in and out so quickly that I hardly knew it happened. So yeah, I gave myself a finger piercing today :)

It's unseasonably cool still--although I did turn the heat off about 1-2 weeks ago, it's not warm enough to keep windows open. (Okay, not for me. There are plenty of French people who open their windows even during the winter! I just don't fancy it being 15 degrees C indoors!)

I know we'll be yearning for cooler temperatures once July hits. But I had to put on 2 jackets when I was out this afternoon as soon as the sky clouded over.

We watched another episode of Andor tonight. Lots of soccer tomorrow...some time this weekend, I really want to see Conclave!

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Conclave!

In the early evening we set out to watch the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. Turns out we were mistaken on the time somehow so it was already done and dismantled. So we walked home and came back to which smoke pouring from the Vatican chimney: a new Pope had been elected.

We kept the TV on as we prepared and ate dinner and were surprised than an American was chosen. Super interesting.

We were going to watch Conclave this evening but ran out of time. We'll do it soon, though, because it's the perfect moment.

Ivy and Eric were gone all day at a soccer tournament, which did not go well at all for her team. She came home sunburned and Eric came home disappointed.

We had confit de canard and potatoes roasted in some of the duck fat and a simple tomato-goat cheese-basil salad, plus Magnum ice cream bars for dessert.

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Tomorrow is a school holiday, celebrating 8 mai 1945, which marked the end of WWII. After dinner, Eric and went on a walk that took us past the war memorial. They were setting up for a big event, and on the way back a violin was playing accompanied by a military band. Very lovely music.

Ivy has a tournament all day tomorrow.

Dio's class had PE at the Vauban stadium this morning. There was a problem with the tram on the way home, so he had to run all the way back (after running around for hours!).

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I got a big breech project finished and published today. I also mailed Zari's Canadian passport application. I'm almost ready to tear off my scribbled over to-do list and start with a fresh piece of paper. So satisfying.

Zari is filling out financial aid forms for Canada. There's a bit of limbo between which province she's a resident of, given that she has never lived in any of them. The financial aid office said to apply for both ON and AB and see which one ends up going through.

Zari had school this morning and came home with a fever and chills. She slept most of the afternoon.

Dio had a field trip to les Gorges de Daluis, a deep red rock canyon not too far away. We've never been. It's sometimes called the "Colorado niçois," in fact!

Dinner was chicken leek soup and random roasted vegetables (whatever was in our fridge--eggplant, bell peppers, and zucchini). I also roasted some hot peppers and garlic, for making a hot sauce. Eric popped one of the roasted peppers in his mouth, thinking it was a slice of bell pepper. He soon regretted that life choice.

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Crêpe fête

An anglicized way to say crepe party, I know, but it's the expression we always use :) We had several people over for crepes this evening, with a full assortment of toppings: whipped cream & mascarpone, nutella, bananas, dark chocolate, orange marmalade, lingonberry jam, white sugar, powdered sugar, & lemon juice.

I had a busy day and neglected to go out and exercise/walk today. I need to do better tomorrow.

Zari worked on several scholarship applications: one was a 30-second video, the other a humorous essay.

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Rear window

I walked all over Nice in the rain today. To Cimiez and back in the morning (not realizing it was going to rain...). Then in the late afternoon we walked to our friend's apartment for a potluck dinner and farewell party. I've logged over 15k steps today.

The kids came home via car and...well...there was a "big problem," in their words. We share a parking spot with a friend and so we have to do this juggling of the cars when we park our car (pull his car out, back ours in, back his in). When Eric was backing the friend's car in, the garage door started to lower and smashed the back window. That was definitely excitement that we didn't need 🙂

I made purple risotto and meatloaf Wellington for the potluck tonight. We have plenty of leftovers so that's dinner for tomorrow!

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Dio had plans to have a birthday party with his friends, but they had to reschedule. That gave us some time in the evening to watch two episodes of Andor. He had a game in the afternoon (losing 3-1), which Eric went to.

Inga and I wandered around Old Nice looking in a lot of the little shops. She's browsing for a friend's birthday gift. Nothing struck us, but it was fun to see everything from the point of view of someone who would be here to look at charming shops and buy souvenirs. I'm usually hurrying through and getting annoyed at the slow tourists!

We got to bed well after midnight last night due to Ivy having a friend over. Plus everyone was having lots of fun hanging out together so I didn't want to shut the party down. But of course I woke up before 7 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Ugh. I'm constantly sleep deprived because the rest of my family stays up late. Since our bedroom has windows that overlook the living room, I can't sleep if other people are up (due to both light and noise). And there's really nowhere else for people to go in this tiny apartment!

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When life gives you purple turnips...

I got a surprise box today consisting mainly of purple top turnips. Yep. Not the world's most exciting produce. I'm really not a huge fan of turnips or parsnips so I had to do some research to find a recipe that looked good. I ended up making a Provençal gratin that turned out great. https://cookpad.com/fr/recettes/14418033-gratin-de-navets-violets-aux-tomates-et-mozzarella

I still would never buy turnips of my own volition but I'm glad I found a good use for them! I also cooked up some chicken breasts with olive oil and herbes de Provence for a bit of protein.

Zari has officially accepted Trinity College at the University of Toronto! Woohoo! She's very interested in living off-campus and cooking her own food, so we would love any good leads for housing.

I worked on a twin birth publication with my Italian colleague. It's very close to submitting now and we're super excited! Teaser graphic from the results (2 hospitals instated a training initiative to lower C-section rates for twins, and they studied outcomes a few years before and a few years after implementation). They reduced the CS rate fairly dramatically without negatively impacting maternal or neonatal outcomes.

What else of note? I also worked on a data collection form for our Afghanistan collaboration (https://www.breechwithoutborders.org/emergency). Many other things but they would bore all of you!

Ivy has her best friend over for an impromptu sleepover. I hope they actually sleep.

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May Day

The streets were packed today with people wearing enormous, bizarre hats; walking around in parades; and following a straw man wheeled about on a cart.

Can you get pedestrian road rage? I certainly felt it, trying to walk through the crowded pedestrian streets of Old Nice. Stupid tourists who walk at a slow amble and go right in the middle of the available space so you can get around them on either side!

Mid-afternoon we paused our other activities and went to the beach. It was so packed you'd think it was almost July! I had a quick swim and then had to head back for a meeting. The water was cool but really not so bad. There's a warm layer on the surface a few inches deep.

I had several Too Good To Go orders, one of which was a bust because the store was closed the entire day! But the others were great. For example, one of mine was from a tiny grocery store and for 4 Euros, I got 1 liter of extra virgin olive oil, 3 salmon & dill sandwiches, several tomatoes, a bunch of bananas, a pear, and several apples. At the bakery, another 4 Euros got me 6 assorted pastries (croissants, pain au chocolat, & chaussons aux pommes), 2 blackberry tarts, 1 huge chocolate chip brioche, 1 large salad, & 1 yogurt cup.

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